Walker Pride (21 page)

Tyson stepped forward until he was nearly head to head with their grandfather. “As if finding out she abandoned me makes me want to celebrate her.”

Eric thought he could punch him, again, for talking about her like that. But how could he? They were both absolutely dumbfounded by what their grandfather had told them.

Tyson turned and started out of the kitchen.

“Tyson, wait,” Lydia yelled as she ran after him.

Elias shook his head and looked back at Eric. “Do you want to argue my reasons for moving her now?”

Eric looked toward the doorway where Tyson and Lydia had gone out. “You’re still taking my land from me. So I have a whole list of reasons to still despise you.”

“Fair enough. But the land is a business deal. That has nothing to do with you.”

“Like hell it doesn’t. My horses were poisoned and so were my cattle.”

Eric noted the surprised look on Elias’s face. “That’s unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate? I have nothing. Boarding horses was my business, but now I have no boarders. And why would I? One of my clients lost a beloved animal and that becomes my fault. Now heads of cattle are just dying. That’s my family’s livelihood.”

Eric studied Elias’s eyes. Was that worry behind that steely glare?

“Let me move your mother, into town, and I’ll see what I can do about the land.”

“You want to make deals? Deals with what was mine to begin with?”

“It seems as though you have your uncle to blame for the land crisis. As for your mother, I think perhaps you see another side to her. I’d never deny you access to her.”

Eric’s chest actually hurt at the thought of giving in to Elias Morgan. “If I let her go, what can you do about the land?”

“I can at least promise that you can stay there—forever.”

Eric considered his offer. It was the least a man could do for keeping secrets from his grandchildren for over forty years.

“Okay, but if I don’t like where you’re putting her I won’t let her go.”

Elias nodded, but Eric was sure she’d disappear in the middle of the night again if he didn’t agree.

“As for your cattle. We need to get to the bottom of who’s responsible. Tyson informed me we’d lost a few heads as well.”

“He seems to think I had something to do with that,” Eric added.

“If I recall you said the same to him.”

Funny how a change of heart could happen so quickly.

“I assure you I had nothing to do with your loss,” Eric said firmly.

“And I assure you we had nothing to do with yours.”

Fair enough, he thought.

“Susan Hayes,” Eric brought her up in subject again. “Why was she here?”

Elias picked up his tea again and sipped. “Why would that concern you? What dealings do you have with Ms. Hayes?”

“That’s my business.”

The old man’s lips curved into a crooked smile. “Well, then I can assume her being here is my business.”

They’d made some progress today, but Eric still didn’t like the man. He’d find out what Susan was doing there. The very thought angered him nearly as much as realizing he needed to find his long lost brother and make amends. After all, he couldn’t have anyone having ill will toward his mother—no matter what she’d done in her past.

The contract was in her pocket! Susan drove down the bumpy road toward home with an enormous grin on her face. The only problem she was going to have was finding someone to serve, since they’d specifically asked for Bethany not to work the dinner.

A million questions had filled her head as to why, but she’d already promised that she wouldn’t mention the dinner to anyone—and she supposed that included Bethany.

She looked at the clock on her dash. She had time to throw together another dish for dinner before heading out. Nothing fancy. Maybe just a caprese salad. After all, when she was happy she loved to create.

Bethany was in the kitchen when she arrived, arranging the flower bouquet into a vase. “I found this at a yard sale and couldn’t pass it up for a quarter. That doesn’t make it a cheap gift does it? I mean in sentiment.”

“I think it looks beautiful. You have a real gift.”

Bethany’s smile faded. “My mother worked for a short time in a flower shop. She taught me a few things.”

“My mother taught me to cook. Those are some amazing gifts they passed on to us. Maybe you could work that talent into our catering. Centerpieces and things like that.”

The smile returned to Bethany’s face. “I’d like that.”

“I’m going to go take a shower and then plate a caprese salad.”

“You’re taking more food?”

“I can’t help myself. I’m happy and I cook when I’m happy. I’m nervous and I cook when I’m nervous.”

“Why are you nervous? You’ve met all these people.”

“But I wasn’t sleeping with Glenda’s son then.”

That had Bethany bust out in laughter. “I thought I was nervous, but you’re right. You should be more nervous.”

~*~

Tyson had left the Morgan’s and Eric had no idea where to find him. One minute he’d found out he had a cousin he’d never met and now to find out that man was his brother was a little too much to take in. What the hell else could happen in the day that would trump that?

Eric was emotionally spent. The mother he loved and had thought he’d known was now a complete stranger. Who was Tyson’s father and why had she been with him? And how had she ended up with his father? Having lived with Glenda his entire life, he couldn’t imagine his father choosing his mother—if she was of the character that Elias had made her out to be.

Eric didn’t want to believe that either. The woman he remembered—or at least seemed to have concocted in his mind—was a saint. He’d keep her that way. It gave him comfort.

A headache began to form behind his eyes. His cheek hurt from the punch Tyson had landed there, for the second time in a week, and his thumb throbbed. He needed to get the bandage off. He needed a stiff drink, some Motrin, and about ten minutes alone to figure out how he was going to approach Susan about being at the Morgan’s house.

Anger still pumped through his veins when he thought of Elias Morgan’s grin when he said,
“Well, then I can assume her being here is my business .”

She had no business with those people. He didn’t want her to have anything to do with Tyson and especially Elias. She was his and he wasn’t going to share her too, he thought as he pulled up in front of his house and slammed on the brakes.

The thought seemed to be sticking in his head too strong. Perhaps that was the ploy. Wasn’t it convenient that Susan arrived in his life when his grandfather died and Elias began his descent on the Walkers?

His mouth went dry.

She’d been there the morning before Whiskey River died. She’d been at the barn before he got there.

His palms were wet and his breath came in pants.

What was Susan doing with the Morgan’s? Was she part of the plan to destroy him? How convenient to have been there when his grandfather died and to be there as each part of his life unfolded.

Eric ripped the bandage off his thumb and cursed as he brushed the stitches.

How could he have been so stupid? Oh, and he’d put Bethany right in the middle of things too. Just how much information were they trying to get?

Eric pushed open the door on his truck and jumped down. He kicked the earth at his feet and looked up at the house he loved so much. Why the hell should he stay there now? Didn’t it seem as if every single person in his life was against him—including his mother?

The sound of tires kicking up dirt behind him had him turning around. A brand new blue pickup came racing toward him.

Eric quickly moved in front of his truck as the other truck skidded to a stop beside him. It shouldn’t have surprised him when Tyson hurried out of his truck and right for him.

Obviously they were going to beat the crap out of each other again, so Eric had his one good fist ready to go.

“You didn’t know about all that?” Tyson said with venom in his voice as he stared toward Eric with a hurried walk.

Eric simply stared at the man who’s fury was red hot on his cheeks. “About what? My mother?”

“Our mother,” Tyson said with a wince. “If that is, in fact, true.”

“Did it seem as if I knew about it? Jesus, I didn’t even know you existed until the other day when you began punching me.”

“I think you came at me.”

Had he actually smiled and had Eric returned it? He let down his defensive stance—slightly.

“I didn’t know shit. None of this makes sense. Why wouldn’t someone have told us that if it were true? Why now? Why when we’re grown men?”

Tyson narrowed his eyes. “Look at us. I’d think we were brothers if I didn’t know better.” He ran his hands over his head. “And when I called my mother she broke into hysterics and couldn’t even speak to me,” he admitted. “She hung up on me. Actually hung up.”

“I guess we don’t understand our families as well as we thought we did.”

Tyson nodded. “Never did feel like I belonged. Maybe this is why.”

Eric felt the throb in his thumb and tried to bend the stiffness from it. “Want a drink?”

Tyson looked at his watch. “Yeah. Maybe we can decide who’s killing our cattle. I’m going to take a leap and assume, in a
brotherly
trust, we’re not doing that to each other.”

“You can take that leap. I didn’t kill your animals.”

“I didn’t kill yours either,” Tyson said as they walked up the front steps and into the house. “My grandpa,” he let out a groan. “Our grandpa is up to something. I’m beginning to think it has something to do with your land and the issue with our animals.”

Eric walked to the kitchen, opened the cupboard, and took out a bottle of Jack and two shot glasses. “Then we need to find out what and stop it. And so help me if I can keep him from moving my mother I’ll still do it. Visit if you want, and he can too, she still belongs here.”

He poured the whiskey into the glasses and handed one to Tyson.

Tyson threw the drink back and swallowed hard. “I don’t blame you for wanting to keep her. I’d want the same.”

Eric lifted his glass and swallowed down the liquid, which burned as it slid down his throat. “I don’t suppose he even cared that she was gone.”

“You’d be wrong. He talked about her all the time. He celebrates her birthday every year. This year would have been her sixtieth.”

“I know that.” He didn’t quite know what to do with Tyson’s knowledge of it, however.

It still hurt to think that if Elias Morgan loved and missed his daughter so much he’d have wanted to know his grandson.

Tyson set his glass on the counter. “I’m going to head to town and find a place to stay. It’s time to find a place away from him to live. I thought I’d been there all my life to take over what belonged to me.”

“It does. Just as part of this belongs to me.”

“Just doesn’t feel right at this moment.”

Eric nodded. He certainly understood that.

“What was Susan doing there?” The urge to ask had taken over.

Tyler shrugged. “I don’t know. Honestly, she has something going on with my grandfather and my sister.”

His answer wasn’t satisfying Eric’s curiosity as to what she was involved with. Eric was feeling betrayed, as he knew Tyson was.

“Hey, I’m sorry for punching you,” Eric said quietly.

“Me too. Years of built up frustration.”

That did, in fact, sum it up.

“Let me know if you learn anything.”

“I’ll do that.”

Tyson let himself out the door and Eric listened as he drove away. If they weren’t responsible for killing each other’s herds and horses who was then?

No one suffers.

He thought of his father’s words. Didn’t it seem like everyone was suffering, including the Morgans?

There was more, he knew. Why were his father and uncle at the Morgan’s the other day? Why was Susan?

He looked at his watch. It was almost time for dinner. Maybe it was time to see what they were all plotting. How convenient to have his father and his
lover
all in the same room.

Susan couldn’t remember the last time she was this nervous. Her fingers were cold and her hands shook. Bethany was rattling on a story to her left, but she wasn’t hearing any of it. She was thinking of facing Eric’s father after he’d come to the house yesterday morning and had to have known she’d slept with his son.

Would they all know? Did it matter?

She was quite sure she’d fallen in love with Eric and he’d let that slip from his lips too. Surely they would be skeptical of her. Who wouldn’t be?

“Don’t you think so?” Bethany asked as she turned down the road that would lead them to the Walker’s house.